Marketing Strategies Implemented by Myer - Case Study Example

Table of Contents: 1. Executive Summary.............................................................................................................1 2. Background/Product Description.........................................................................................2 3. Corporate vision...................................................................................................................3 4. Mission statement................................................................................................................3 5. Corporate goals....................................................................................................................3 5.1. Sales..............................................................................................................................3 5.2. Growth..........................................................................................................................3 5.3. Profit.............................................................................................................................3 5.4. Market positioning........................................................................................................3 5.5. Market entry.................................................................................................................3 6. Responsibility........................................................................................................................3 6.1. Ethical..........................................................................................................................4 6.2. Environmental...............................................................................................................4 6.3. Social............................................................................................................................4 7. Situation/Environmental analysis of the industry – PESTEL............................................... 4 7.1 Competitive audit..........................................................................................................4 8. SWOT analysis......................................................................................................................6 8.1 Strengths……………………………………………………………..…………..……6 8.2 Weaknesses…………………………………………………………..………………..7 8.3 Opportunities………………………………………………………..…………………7 8.4 Threats………………………………………….……………………………...………7 8.5 SWOT Matrix…………………………………………………………………….…...8 9. Marketing Objectives............................................................................................................ 10 10. Target market........................................................................................................................10 11. Marketing Mix strategies......................................................................................................12 12. Implementation.....................................................................................................................13 13. Control and evaluation…………………………………………………………..…....……13 14. References…………………………………………………………….…………...……….13 1. Executive Summary: The following report has dwelt with the marketing strategies implemented by Myer. Strategic/institutional management is an institutional/organizations process of specifying their vision, mission, and/or objectives, through the development of their plans and policies. This is a summary of the Myer departmental stores, the key to their success being good marketing strategies of their business and services (Menon et al 1999 p: 18-40). 2. Background/Product Description First established in1900 in Melbourne Myer was then and is still the largest retail businesses in Australia. Mr. Sidney Myer, the founder, a Russian immigrant opened her store and with time ended up creating the largest retail businesses in modern Australia. Our great studios are in a position to offer the people of Australia an escape from hard-driving city into an energetic, fast-paced retreat from daily struggles and thus giving them a chance to renew, refresh and reinvent their bodies – through good clothing. The inspiration comes from other departmental stores within the world. 3. Corporate vision; Myers vision is and has been always to branch out to other cities in Australia over time and the world at large; they are not entirely restricted to Australia. The board of directors is committed to maximising performance, generating appropriate levels of Shareholder value and financial return and sustaining the growth and success of the Myer business and the Myer brand. In conducting business with these objectives, the Board is concerned to ensure that Myer is properly managed to protect and enhance Shareholder interests, and that Myer, its Directors, officers and employees operate in an appropriate environment of corporate governance. Accordingly, the Board has adopted corporate governance policies and practices designed to promote responsible management and the conduct of Myer. The Myer code of conduct outlines how Myer expects Directors and employees to behave and conduct business in a range of circumstances. In particular, the code requires awareness of, and compliance with, laws and regulations relevant to Myer’s operations, including occupational health and safety, fair-trading and dealing, privacy and employment practices. 4. Mission statement; Delivery of goods and services to your doorstep. 5. Corporate goals: 1. Sales, within the pas few years our sales and profits have increased tremendously and our plan will be to offer support to our community through community based projects. Myer has a strong connection with its customers, with one of the most reputable retail brands in Australia. It is known for its welcoming, familiar, trusted, stylish and fun shopping environment as well as its strong culture of philanthropy and local community engagement. Myer caters for a large number of Australian households, offering more than 600,000 product lines, comprising 2,400 brands sourced from over 800 suppliers globally. Myer’s offering comprises eleven core product categories including women wear; menswear; youth fashion; children wear; intimate apparel; beauty, fragrance and cosmetics; homewares; electrical goods; toys; fashion accessories; and general merchandise. 2. Growth; Myer has slowly grown depending on our profit margins and the attitude of the other cities where we plan to expand into over time. 3. Profit; projected financial year profits will be minimal as it will be used to cover operational expenses like salaries to our trained sales representatives, teachers and employees. 4. Market positioning; our stores are centrally located for easy accesses. 5. Market entry; our market entry was firs made in Perth then slowly spread to other cities in Australia as our starting capital was marginal. 6. Responsibility - 6.1. Ethical: Our business will try and increase availability of comprehensive resources to facilitate community interest-based growth through partnership development. Myer is in a position to support and help community based organizations through mentoring programs. Myer will encourage community flexibility to respond to a changing environment through government liaison and human resource development. Increasing the availability of all comprehensive resources thus facilitating community based interest through partnership development (Menon et al 1999 p: 18-40). 6.2. Environmental: We plan to use natural resources for our business, resources like water will be mainly used or wood to build our fitness exercise home made machines. 6.3. Social: Provide advice, counseling and support to new and existing businesses and/or individuals. Demonstrate accountability, to our funders and our community, for the use of investment funds. 7. Situation/Environmental analysis of the industry – PESTEL 7.1 Competitive audit: Existing Competitors Core Products Facilitating Products Strengths Weaknesses Value North Perth stores training therapy spacious Poor advertising 1 million $ WA School Therapy Ashtanga Well established (1985) Poor advertising 1million $ W.A. Therapy training Good advertising techniques Not easily accessible to the community at large since they specialise in training. 2 million $ Emerging Competitors Other departmental stores Counselling training Good market base. No advertising is done by them. 0.5 Million $ The Bayswater Centre Clothing Group therapy Good marketing techniques 0.7 Million $ The Space Training/teaching of staff Therapy Average marketing strategies. Poor market base 0.5 Million $ (Armstrong 1982, 197 - 211). 8. SWOT analysis 8.1 Strengths Any firm's strengths will be their resources and capabilities that can all be used as a basis to develop a competitive advantage. Our departmental stores has some of these strengths over the others existing in Australia; We have a very strong brand name that will click on the minds of even the young in society – some businesses exclude the young not knowing that they are actually the future of our business. Myer will work towards having a very good reputation among our esteemed customers Myer will also have very exclusive access to high grade natural resources that will be very favorable to our market. Myer offers diverse and exciting range of careers in their stores and offices. As a Myer Team Member, you get discounts with very flexible working hours training and developmental opportunities that are very rewarding for your career path. Available on-line applications do allow applicants to review the status of their applications and/or update their details. 8.2 Weaknesses Absence of strengths will be viewed as a weakness. For example in our Myer business, each of the following may be considered as potential weaknesses: The lack of patent protection A very weak brand name Customers are our priority and thus poor reputation among customers will be a great disadvantage. The lack of access to natural resources can also be a weakness Although the on-line applications help individuals to review their application status, not all will have access to computers and the internet. But it is important to note that in some cases, a weakness will be the flip side of strength. 8.3 Opportunities Environmental analysis will reveal certain previously unseen opportunities for profit and growth. For instance; Customer needs that are unfulfilled, fulfilling the same equal increased profit and growth. The arrival of new technologies will mean that if utilized will lead to increased profits and growth also 8.4 Threats Changes in the external environmental also may present threats to a business. Some examples of threats include: Shifts in consumer tastes away from the your business services and/or products The emergence of a substitute product will be a threat New government regulations may pose as a threat to our business. Increased trade barriers will also be a threat to our business in that the barriers may hinder our growth. The electrical and toys section is against growing competition from Japan and China. 8.5 SWOT Matrix Myer will not necessarily pursue lucrative opportunities but rather our business will be aimed at the development of a competitive advantage, this will by done through the identification of a fit between Myer strengths and any would be upcoming opportunities. For Myer to be in a position to develop strategies that would thus take into account SWOT, a SWOT/TWOS matrix is constructed: SWOT / TOWS Matrix   Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities S - O strategies W - O strategies Threats S - T strategies W - T strategies (Armstrong 1982, p: 197 - 211). S-O strategies, Myer should only pursue strategies beneficial (strengths) to them and leave out the rest. The essence of this strategy is for a given business to mainly dwell with their strengths as they try to improve on their weakness. W-O strategies, the ability by Myer to overcome any upcoming and/or existing weaknesses will enable us to pursue opportunities. S-T strategies, Myer should identify ways that it can use as their strengths to help reduce their vulnerability to any would be external threat. W-T strategies, Myer should be in a position to establish a defensive plan; this will help prevent the weaknesses of the business from being very susceptible to the external threats. Take dissatisfied customers as an example, the same is a weakness and the external threat is the customer shifting to firms that treat them better (Westbrook 1997, 46-52). 9. Marketing Objectives Myer should only have marketing objectives that are able to lead to sales and if sales are not met then it only means that different marketing objectives be put in place to help achieve the same. The marketing objectives we will choose should: Be very clear, measurable and should be stated in terms of a given time frame. Some of the marketing objectives that Myer will follow include: There should be increase awareness among our target audience by 30 percent in the next year about our products and/or services. Myer should b in apposition to inform their targeted audiences about benefits and features of their products and their competitive advantage, leading to 15% increased sales in one year. Remove or decrease resistance of potential customers' to buying our product/services, this will then lead to 20% increase in sale. It is important to note multiple objectives should be very clear and consistent as they tend to end up in conflicting ideas; action programs, your budget, controls and measures should all help support your set marketing objectives and if they do not make sure they do since they will contradict or hinder achievement of the same. The question to ask yourselves is whether you have resources that are necessary in the accomplishment of your objectives (Armstrong 1982, p: 197 - 211). 10. Myer Target market The issue of targetniche marketing entails the breaking of available market into several segments then concentrating your efforts into the segments that are key to your success. Myer has implemented the same through their Australian market segment. The beauty of this being that it makes promotional, distributional and pricing of products and/or services very much easier and in so doing it becomes more cost-effective. for instance, Myer opened business offering dressing and electronic services in the client’s home amongst other things, so instead of advertising with the local newspaper, they have opted to insert a direct mail on their website that then will not only go to only go to particular residents but to a whole ,new market at large. Type of Market Segment Shared Group Characteristics Demographic Segment These are the measurable statistics of our targeted market and they include; income/occupation and age. We intend to target the age group between 16 and 55 as they have a considerable income and would be willing to spend on our services. Psychographic Segment These are the lifestyle preferences; some people love music while others love silence. The same will be considered to our esteemed customers. Use-based Segment This segment deals with the frequency of usage of the facilities such as traveling or recreational drinking. Benefit Segment Desire to obtain the same product benefits such as luxury or comfort s termed as the benefit segment. Behaviour The tendency to come back after the first visit and it may to a very large extent be highly motivated by customer treatment. Geographic Segment Geographic segment is all about the location of the business and may be in terms of the business address. (Menon et al, 1999 p: 96). 11. Marketing Mix strategies: Marketing strategy is a section of your business plan that will outline the set game plan for the achievement of the set marketing objectives. The marketing strategy should include the four P’s: Product – the products that Myer intends to offer to our residents is clothing, group therapy and exercise and/or training, electronics and toys. Some of the advantages of training include; training will emphasize the treatment of the probable cause of an ailment unlike modern medicine that doesn’t look at the cause but at the cure. Price – since as identified above, our age bracket will range from students to retired folk thus we will charge moderately depending on the luxuries needed by the client. Promotional packages will be offered to new old customers who bring in new customers promotion will also be in form of points gathered by regular customers with the same being converted into a service of choice by the customer after the maximum points are got. Promotion – mass media is a very effective way of promotion but then again there is the ever used word of mouth promotion. Word of mouth is only possible when there is customer satisfaction and it is then that the customer spreads word to friends and relatives. Place/distribution – Myer will bring their products and/or services to the customers using a very dedicated promotional strategy that will make sure that the mass know of the new products and services brought in by our company. 12. Implementation Implementation is the carrying out, execution, or practice of a plan, a method, or any design for doing something. The implementation of our Myer business will be in the next three months once the various prevailing conditions have been met as per the laws of Australia. The business is meant to rival the existing services through better facilities and services and also through the targeting of previously neglected groups of students in Perth. 13. Control and evaluation Control entails the set government standards while evaluation of our business will be done in the next financial year so as to establish whether there is any considerable progress in our business and if none is evident find out how to achieve the same (Berry, 1995 p: 10-11). 14. References Berry, L (1995). On Great Service, New York: Free Press. Bradford, Robert W et al (2002), Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast! Collins, James and Porras, Jerry (1994). Built to Last, New York: Harper Books. Gronroos, C. From marketing mix to relationship marketing: towards a paradigm shift in marketing, Management Decision, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp 4–32, 1994. Hill, T. & R. Westbrook (1997). SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall. Long Range Planning 30 (1): 46–52. J. Scott Armstrong (1982). The Value of Formal Planning for Strategic Decisions. Strategic Management Journal 3: 197–211. M. A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th edition) 2006, Kogan Page , London. Menon, A. et al. (1999). Antecedents and Consequences of Marketing Strategy Making. Journal of Marketing 63(2): 18–40.  Pine, J. and Gilmore, J. (1999). The Experience Economy, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Reichheld, F. (2000). The Loyalty Effect, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Sewell, C. and Brown, P (2003). Customers for Life, New York: Doubleday Currency. Read More